Blinding Light

Art & Poetry Based on John 9

It’s not that seeing is easier,
without pain,
free from suffering.

No,
truthfully,
when the blinders are taken off, and
the light streams in, with
dazzling discomfort,
surprising the senses, and
the blurred, meshed
colors of your life
come into focus as
the glaring light blazes,
you can rightly expect
a smattering of
questions to follow,
provoked, probing, doubtful:

Aren’t you the one who used to…?
How did this change happen?
Where is this God of yours anyhow?
Tell me again, how did this happen?
What do you have to say about God?

Amid this chaotic gleam,
well,
you don’t suddenly have all the answers
nor is everything fixed and known,

It’s only that, now
your focus shifts away
from the past, the circumstance,
away from the why or how,
turning it’s back to blame and cynicism
toward a wider perspective,
a place where
the mysterious revelation
of God’s love resides,

to a sacred space
where divine power is tasted,
healing is present,
and an inner confidence
rises to
a blessed moment
of certain proclamation,

“One thing I do know,
once I was blind,
but now I see!”

Scripture Reflection:John 9:1-25 NRSV

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”